Rajai wins Iranian landslide

By
WITH ANALYSIS FROM MONITOR CORRESPONDENTS AROUND THE WORLD,
EDITED BY CLARA GERMANI /
July 27, 1981

London

Prime Minister Muhammad Ali Rajai won a landslide victory as successor to deposed Iranian President Abolhassan Bani-Sadr, according to results broadcast by Iran state radio. The result of Friday's elections -- which sparked violence in which 12 Revolutionary Guards were killed protecting ballot boxes -- will tighten the grip of the Muslem fundamentalist clergy on the country. The former President, now in hiding, was toppled in a bitter struggle with fundamentalists determined to wipe out all opposition.

Mr. Rajai secured 12.2 million of the 14 million votes cast, as against 428, 021 for his nearest rival, Abbas Shaybani.

The results from Tehran, Iran's capital and most populous city, were not yet available, broadcasts said. But with vote counting still continuing, it seemed certain that Rajai, a former mathematics teacher and favored candidate of the dominant Islamic Republican Party, would win the election with a majority of well over 90 percent.